A Song in Every Glass

Corsican Wine: A Metamorphosis of Island Culture

Corsica is a mountainous island in the Mediterranean just north of Sardinia, west of Italy and south east of France. Corsica has been a pawn in the game of war for centuries. Corsica is best known as the birth place and early childhood home of Napoleon Bonaparte; however, as the wines produced on Corsica are increasing in exportation and gaining international recognition, Corsica is being recognized as a unique wine producing region.

In his 2015 article titled “Corsican Wines Speak a Language of Their Own,” Eric Asimov wrote “Corsica [is] one of the most exciting and distinctive wine regions in the world.” According to Mr Asimov the island culture contributes to the unusual nature of the wines and wine makers.

Overall the small island of Corsica is a complicated place. Like Languedoc, it contains a patchwork of soils including limestone, clay, volcanic, sandstone, and granite. The climate is both maritime and continental and heavily influenced by the mountains. The winds blow continually and comprise of the Mistral (that affects a large area of southern France) blowing from the northwest, and the Sirocco blowing from the south. The people of Corsica have an independent island state of mind that reminds me in some ways of the Sicilians; they claim they are Corsican first, French second. Ironically, many of the grapes grown on Corsica are both Italian and French, with a Corsican twist, of course. Grapes from Rhone and Provence are found intermingled within the 9 AOC regions, but it is quite possible the Corsican version of Vermentino, known as Vermentinu, is the star of the island. It offers a completely unique expression of a well-known grape.

As much attention as Corsica is receiving these days the wines have not made their way to Texas. I would like to thank my friend Martin Redmond of Enofylz Wine Blog for assisting me in procuring some Corsican wines from K&L Wine Merchant in San Francisco. Here are the wines I opened for this article:

I chose to pair the Domaine Santamaria Patrimonio Blanc with an Asian inspired meal consisting of ginger soy chicken satay and zucchini, carrot, and peanut noodles with a honey soy dressing. The wine was a wonderful match to the meal and something I would look forward to having again.

There were suggestions online to pair the Domaine Santamaria Patrimonio Rouge with a hearty Italian meal, so that is what I did. I defrosted some Bolognese sauce I had made a few months ago to pair with the wine. It was a good suggestion. The wine paired very well with the dish, illustrating it was a better wine with food than without. Both Bolognese and the wine were even better the following night!

Thanks again for the importer’s info. Both of these wines sound lovely, and I’d really like to get my hands on a few bottles. Your pairings look yummy too, and it sounds like they were great accompaniments to the wine.

Great post, I have limited experience with Corsican wines, but I always recall them being very versatile when it comes to food pairing. It helps of course that the Southern French kitchen is already great on its own ;).